The Cedar Chest
by Leigh59
Summary: A judge for a magazine contest starts Rossi on this journey. Will he find love not far from home.


**Just a small reminder I am not making any money form this at all. I promise to put them back as soon as I'm finished playing with them. **

**Criminal Minds belongs to The Mark Gordon Company in association with CBS Television Studios and ABC Studios**

Taking a sip from his heavy lead tumbler David Rossi sighed all the while wondering again how did he ever let himself get roped into being a judge by reading five short stories for his editor.

He had to admit to himself they weren't to bad nothing that he would pick to read for himself. Childhood memories and lost loves, turning over a new leaf and one completely out of left field a medieval tale of woe that one he has to admit was his least favorite. He picks up the last story that he was given and starts to read. Doing what he does for a living he can read between the lines what the author is not telling the reader.

_Two years she thinks to herself it has been two years. She holds the small key in her hand then she throws it as far as she can into the ocean._

_That small key that held so much hope and promise at one time, now it was a reminder of dreams and wishes that never came to be._

_A cedar chest, a hope chest it was called at one time. It was a gift from her grandmother when she turned twelve. Along with the chest came a linen tablecloth all hand embroidered. It was the first of many things that the girl put into the chest._

_She was diligent about putting things in the chest all things that she wanted to use when the time came and mistress of her own home._

_She wasn't a beauty but she wasn't unpleasant either. She was nondescript in her appearance a face in the crowd. Well mannered and intelligent a lady of her time. After a time her chest was full of all the things she would need to start married life._

_Before you knew it, it was time for her coming out, party after party she went to she always danced the first dance with her father. Party after party she went home with an empty dance card. Was it an omen? She thought to herself._

_With no prospects for marriage she convinced her parents to let her go to the women's college near by. She thrived in the academic world she felt like she had truly found her niche. She graduated with a degree in English and was hired at the college to teach Shakespeare and Chaucer, Tennyson and Byron. English literature at its best, the classics._

_She watched as her friends marry and have children. She stayed by her parents side and nursed them as they both died within months of each other. All alone in the big rambling house she could hear the ghosts of the long dead along with her dreams fading away._

_She sold up and moved to the east coast a better posting at a prestige's woman's college. The one thing she did take with here was the chest still full of dreams._

_She made new friend and soon fell in love with a man of her ilk they had so much in common. He made her smile and laugh for the first time in ages. She knew that it was against everything that she was taught but she went to bed with the man before they were married. She was expecting more of a feeling of joy, instead she was left with a feeling of want that something was missing._

_Four years they were together four long years they argued and made-up. Talked and spent time together but her always left her feeling that something was missing just like when he took her to bed. It was then that she realized that she didn't love him with her complete heart. When asked her to marry him she said no and watched him walk away. She thinks that he understood why, she also truly believes that he knew that she didn't completely love him. He was giving them both a way out an honorably man._

_Little by little she gave the treasures in her chest away to friends that were getting married. Soon the only thing left in the chest was the linen tablecloth that her grandmother had given her. _

_When she opened the chest she found that the cloth was still as pristine as the day she put in it the chest. Carefully wrapping it in tissue paper she places it in a box. It is to be a gift for her best friend as she starts her new life married to a man that she is heads over heels in love with. A gift that will be well used and loved that is if you can love a linen tablecloth._

_The chest now sits in the middle of her small living room being uses as a coffee table. Covered with books and tea cups, but never opened keeping the hopes and dreams that it once held securely locked away._

_She had made plans to go to the beach to see the ocean one last time before the winter set in and made travel impossible. She stands still and watches the waves coming and going._

_Two years have passed she thinks to herself it has been two years. She holds the small key in her hand then she throws it as far as she can into the ocean._

_As it should be. She thinks as tears fall of her cheeks. Dreams, hope and love are for the young. _

_But the chest she would keep as a reminder of better days, of days when she still had dreams and hope. But then again maybe she might still find true love, a girl can dream and still hope, can't she?_

As cynical as David Rossi was he liked this short piece, after all the woman went through she still had hope. Like a child that was on the cusp of no longer believing in Santa but still clinging to the chance that it might be true. There was something about it the cadence and the raw emotions that the writer was sharing that rang too close to home.

He knew this writer somewhere along the way he has met the person that wrote it. He looked for the author's name, N. Gomez. That tells him nothing at all not a man or a woman. But he knows it's a woman the feelings are to strong on the page.

Filling out the form that came with the package her gave his first place to her and her story "The Cedar chest."

When he went to work the next day he was not in the least surprised to see JJ, Penelope along with Spencer talking away getting ready for the work day he went to the coffee machine and stayed close not joining into the conversation.

"Will bought me a Cedar chest for the foot of the bed. Now I can store the extra blankets in it." JJ was telling them.

"Did you know that at one time Cedar chest were giving to girls when they came into puberty as a hope chest. They were suppose to full it with linens and crockery so that they would all ready when they got married. It was part of their dowry."

"Spenc come on. No more."

"I was just sharing. Didn't you have one as girl JJ?"

"I got a footlocker. Remember I was a soccer player. What about you Garcia?"

"I have one but the key is long gone. I use it as a coffee table you've seen it."

"Did you ever use it as a hope chest?" Spence asks.

"At one time I did keep linen in it. Sorry guys time for work look Hotch is giving us the evil eye."

He walked back to his office with a smile as he stirred his coffee. Yes he knew now for certain who the writer of his favorite story is.

After two months go by Rossi goes to her small apartment and knocks on the door. He doesn't have to wait long before she opens it for him. You couldn't say he was surprised that she would be home alone on a Saturday night.

"Sir, is there a problem?"

"No problem I come bearing gifts, Penelope."

"I don't understand."

"You will. First a linen tablecloth from Italy, second a lock picking tool an third an award for first place, best short story in a magazine contest."

"You knew."

"I found out it was you after I submitted my voting of the one I liked best. So N. Gomez will you let this old man show you what it is like to be truly loved and wanted. Or are to afraid to give love a chance."

"I'm not afraid, but why me?"

"You make my heart fill with warmth and desire whenever you are near me, Penelope."

"You never said, I'd like that Dave I really would you always make me feel good too."

"Good." He tells her then goes to her and kisses her gently the first kiss of many for the rest of their lives.


End file.
